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Newsletter from Montana - Minnesota
May 2008
Foreign demand has helped drive U.S. Steel from a $420 million loss five years ago to a nearly $880 million gain last year. Mining giant Freeport-McMoRan's profit is up 1,539 percent, from $181.7 million to nearly $3 billion. Fertilizer maker Mosaic's earnings went from $54 million for all of 2003 to $521 million for just the three months ended in February.
These are some of the changes which are lifting much of America's geographic middle at the expense of its coasts. Personal income in the nation's manufacturing, mining and farming states, which are concentrated in the heartland, has been growing at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent in the past five years. The rest of the country has managed only a 5.4 percent pace, according to government statistics assembled by Moody's
Well, then it is the heartland where you want to be. We are selling our horse ranch in West Central Minnesota to free up some capital for our next adventure. I had planned to make it a fly-in horse ranch, since it has a landing strip, hangar, horse riding arena and pastures to accommodate horses. I wanted to parcel off 5 acres tracts and sell them with the privilege to use the swimming pool and all the horse facilities, but we are leaving that up to the next owner. We also had many inquiries from people who wanted to use our riding arena and/or do boarding, so there is a great retirement possibility there. The owner of about 100 acres adjacent to us would sell more acreage for $ 10,000 an acre, which is already parceled and approved. For 5 acres, you do not need to go through any approval process there in Becker County. We own 75 acres there all together, which is the equivalent to 1,000+ acres of Montana land regarding productivity. We have rented out 40 acres of crop land
to a local farmer, who grows beans, wheat and corn in exchange for hay and straw for our horses. Since the land is softly rolling with trees and ponds separating the fields, there are plenty of riding trails right on the property. Take a look.
Only six paved miles to Walmart and Menards! :-) Actually, there is beautiful town next to the shopping center, called Detroit Lakes with good restaurants, sandy beach along the shore and out of the ordinary stores.
For the boating enthusiasts, the public boat landing for the 1,220 acres Cormorant Lake is just two miles down the road and for an emergency night out, there is a great sports bar just one mile to the west with decent food and friendly service. For other emergencies, Detroit Lakes has a, hospital and a great walk-in clinic with fast service. Every year the Technical College puts on a bird festival, with very interesting lectures, bird walks and activities that help the environment. I attended it this year and was impressed.
I learned that the forest in Northern Minnesota is called a "boreal forest" named after Boreas, god of the North Wind in Greek mythology. Those are stately pines as high as skyscrapers. It seems like people love to look up to something, be it mountaintops or treetops. It sure is easy to fall in love with both. Detroit Lakes is located at a strategic point between the Prairie to the west, the boreal forest to the north and lakes and farms to the east and south. Because of that, there is a lot of bird traffic to see as they travel north or south or just hang out. Put up a bird feeder as we did and you will be amazed at all the different colored birds showing up. In those few acres of wilderness behind the house, there must be thousands of birds, along with ducks and occasional geese.
Some of you are probably celebrating a graduation at this time of the year. Here in Red Lodge the graduation was yesterday, and I am proud to announce that my $ 1,000 scholarship for 2008 went to
Brandon Bilyeu, who will study Orthopedic Medicine at the University of Washington. Actually he has quite a clever plan, he will start to get his basic credits out of the way here in Powell, Wyoming, just across the border and then finish his studies in Washington. After that, he plans to go straight to Africa to sow on limbs, as he put it. A friend of his had studied medicine, went to Africa and they put him to work immediately. No internship, they are short handed there with medical personal, so he is looking forward to that. Really nice fellow, his father is the Lutheran pastor in Luther, just west of Red Lodge.
Our real estate market here in Red Lodge looks a tad slumpy.
Last year at this time 118 lots had sold - this year it is down to 32. down 73%
But I guess the speculators stopped soaking up all those new subdivision lots.
Last year at this time 54 homes had sold - this year it is 28. down 48%
(We have 19 real estate OFFICES in town with 143 agents....). I on the other hand sold more real estate at the beginning of this year, then I did at the beginning of last year. One never knows. Of course, I work two states...
I also checked the Billings MLS, they sold 767 homes last year and 655 homes this year, down 15%
Bozeman MLS sold 913 homes last year and 564 homes this year. down 38%
For Minnesota it looks like this:
Detroit Lakes sold 176 homes and this year 135 homes, that is down 22%
Brainerd sold 795 homes last year and this year 612, down 23%
Minneapolis MLS, they sold 18,937 homes last year and 15,527 homes this year, down 18%
And last but not least, Fargo, North Dakota, sold 1,115 homes last year and 904 this year, down 19%
In spite of all of this, the prices do not seem to go down, at least here in Red Lodge they hardly ever did. They just stagnate a while and then they rise again.
In the light of this, the 200 acres parcel in Joliet has now been split into two parcels. One 40 acres piece for $ 120,000 and the 160 acres are on the market for $ 450,000. If you are into Feng Shui, the 40 acres are a perfect square....
A fellow broker has clients looking for a 10,000 acres ranch - shaped in a perfect square. The poor woman is having a hard time; I do not think there will be a sale anytime soon. The 40 acres are cool, there is nothing but ranch land around it. There are two coulees on the property with lots of big trees and I even got one deer to pose as a property marker! The 160 acres are Z shaped, now I do not know what that does to Feng Shui, but because it sits higher then the surrounding ground, the views are spectacular toward the mountains on three sides. The dryland hayground is producing a bit of an income for the owner and there are some trees. The electricity is half a mile down the road, but that is nothing a few power poles would not fix, or you could use solar. With those 300 days of sunshine a year around here, that should work just splendidly. The property is 6 miles off the beaten path, but then you are within 30 minutes either in Red Lodge for skiing, or in Billings for shopping and such. If you have horses, that would be the place to be with gravel county roads to ride for probably hundreds of miles in all directions.
If you are just looking for a scenic spot to retire that is easy to get too with spectacular views and all the comforts of a small subdivision close to it all, there are the 14 acres with a small creek closer to Red Lodge for $ 145,000 - a 20 acres parcel with a scenic cliff, dotted with pine trees, county gravel roads to walk with ever changing views for $ 135,000 and 45.5 acres in Nye with Stillwater River access right off the property for $ 348,000
Billings is still boom town and any manufacturing or automotive store would do well. If you are in need of a 6,000 sqft warehouse/industrial building on a fenced acre close to freeway and downtown, check out this site:
Did you know that in the average home, 40% of all electricity is used to power electronics while they're turned off? It's called a phantom load which is the energy that's sapped by appliances when they're plugged in, but not on. If you plug your devices into power strips that you switch off each night, you might save a few bucks. If we averted phantom loads in all U.S. homes, we could shut down 17 power plants.
You could also buy a Smart Strip Power Strip, which is a smarty-pants device that senses when electronics are off, then "unplugs" them; also has space for "always on" appliances such as clocks and the fridge ($40).
Belkin SurgeMaster - has nine outlets, three phone-line inputs, and safety covers for the kids ($29).
Intermatic Appliance Timer - a timer that turns off lamps and electronics; use it when you're outta town ($5).
If you need some more convincing, get a "Kill-a-Watt" to find out how much energy various appliances are using ($24).
"Electricity usage monitor connects to appliances and assesses efficiency
"Large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour
"Calculates electricity expenses by the day, week, month, or year
"Displays volts, amps, and wattage within 0.2 percent accuracy
"Compatible with inverters; designed for use with AC 115-volt appliances
If you rather raise money than save it, here is an idea for you: My daughter Tuula is running a small magazine (she is studying journalism) for the University of Oregon and they did a great thing to raise some money for the paper:
It was called "Rent-A-Pooch" - they made $ 800 in a day. They had borrowed puppies from the humane society and rented them out for 15 minutes for $5 each, so people could hug and play with a puppy. They split the loot with the humane society and their portion goes towards their publishing fund. Since the paper does not run advertisements, and mainly runs off of student funds, they do interesting fundraisers like this. They made the front page!
While we are speaking about love, somebody sent me a link to a "you tube", where a couple had adopted a blind little Korean girl, who turned out to be a piano genius. She played: "You are born to be loved:"
Have a wonderful start of summer and hopefully I will see you soon!
:-)
Best Regards,
Dorothea Lowe, Broker
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